We caught up with Camisha Zinke, the Brand Manager behind Smirnoff Raspberry Crush

What has your Diageo experience been like since joining to your current role now?

It's been quite a journey at Diageo for me so far and a truly international experience during which I have grown personally and professionally in so many ways.

I started my first role in sales, working in the Off-Trade in Berlin, I then moved to Amsterdam where I joined the Digital Commerce team leading the D-com breakthrough in our partner markets and digital customers in Northern Europe. From there I decided to follow my passion, Marketing, and moved to London where I joined the European Marketing team to manage our whisky brands Bells and Mortlach.

I would say at Diageo you really own your career and you get the support you need, however you are the person in the driver's seat so it's all about initiative and focusing your energy on what is in your control. My line manager and mentor have been key in my development and the feedback culture at Diageo is what really helps me grow on a daily basis.

I have worked on Smirnoff for the past year and a half which has been an amazing experience during a challenging time. The pandemic forced us to work from home and adapt to a completely different way of working. The key theme that stands out in my development in this current role is the ability to adapt quickly, while still envisioning the future and developing plans for growth without ever losing the fun and creative spark.

What stands out for me about Diageo is the involvement of our brands in creating authentic stories of real and diverse people and how each individual can directly influence the messages we create to impact local culture and communities in a positive way. Embedding our brands in culture and using our platforms to add value to people's lives outside of just selling our products is what makes me want to work for this company. We still have a long way to go but we are taking the right steps as a company. My motto has always been don't choose the people that are just like you and Diageo has taken the right step into that direction, constantly questioning existing beliefs and assumptions to allow for greater objectivity and recruiting people from all ethnicities and backgrounds.

Tell us more about your current role at Diageo?

My role as Smirnoff Brand Manager is to subvert the ordinary and drive Smirnoff's distinctiveness. I ensure Smirnoff remains the biggest vodka brand and relevant for consumers beyond the late-night occasion. Ultimately, I need to offer consumers compelling reasons to pick up a bottle of Smirnoff whether in store, online, in a bar or at any event where people celebrate and get together.

As the innovation lead for all flavour launches my role is to look for incremental growth opportunities for the future. I deliver the marketing plans and assets from strategy to execution, and I am also directly involved in product development. I am leading upcoming limited editions to support the brand's rate of sale and visibility standout. From a performance perspective I lead monthly reports and the marketing action plans to fuel our brand and category growth. Within the digital space I am our team's digital commerce lead, leading our breakthrough in .com and ensuring we show up brilliantly across the digital path to purchase.

I must say this role has been my most diverse role at Diageo so far and it's definitely a work hard play hard job, where dedication and ownership are key and during peak times you have to be on top of your game. To me the best part of the role is the mix of strategic and analytic work combined with doing fun and creative stuff that makes people smile. One day I am at a shoot and the next day I will be presenting our brand strategy and plans to the sales teams or deep diving into our consumer insights and performance drainers and drivers, no day is the same really.

Smirnoff has recently launched Smirnoff Raspberry Crush - Explain why this came about and what it's been like behind the scenes to get this to launch and into customers/consumers hands.

When building out the Smirnoff marketing strategy for GB, we have found that there is an incremental opportunity for vodka through exploding flavoured vodka growth and providing an alternative for consumers who don't drink gin, yet still seek delicious flavours. As a cross functional project team we set ourselves the vision to make a distinctive entrance in this space, so we launched Smirnoff Raspberry Crush in GB, a delicious raspberry flavoured vodka with the natural flavours of juicy pink raspberries made with Smirnoff No. 21 vodka - a truly bold delicious taste of the extraordinary Smirnoff.

Our communications idea, which inspires every touch point of the marketing plan, was built of an insight that is very true to the world we live in and is all about bringing the bold juicy flavour and fun to the early evening through delicious colourful liquids coupled with a bold vibrant pack design and the cheeky and playful Smirnoff tone of voice.

Behind the scenes our project team dialled up the pace and efficiency without losing any creativity and attention to detail and with an outstanding team effort we developed a new liquid, pack and propositions in record time, exceeding all research benchmarks and overcoming all possible consumer challenges. Our team spirit has been outstanding and our 'getting things done' mentality and problem-solving mindset as a team were the key success factors for the innovation plans we delivered. I have built lasting relationships with agencies and stakeholders across the business from all over the world from commercial and innovation, via shopper and consumer planning, to the GB and global team and more.

What are the most exciting and challenging aspects of launching innovation?

Innovation stands at the core of brand building and to me the most exciting aspect is being close to the consumer and creating an actual product and communications plan that is deeply rooted in consumer insights and offering real value.

If you love collaboration and ideating and at the same time implementing and executing, I recommend working on an innovation launch.

I am an outcome driven person so being able to see the end product on shelf and revisit my campaign results gives me all the reward. Working in innovation is challenging without a doubt because you work with a big network of stakeholders which means a variety of timing plans, lots of deadlines, calls and alignment needed across the business and constant risks to maneuver which forces you to find solutions for unexpected scenarios and adapt quickly. Your leadership skills really come to a test here.

How do innovations have a personal impact as well as affect business performance?

Having worked on an innovation has taught me to make bold choices in times of uncertainty and to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset when approaching decisions.

These types of end-to-end projects require high levels of accountability and the passion and desire to execute a concept and strategy from paper. I also think there comes a sense of personal pride when you see your product on shelf and think 'wow we did this and thousands of people are talking about it and buying it!'

From a business point of view innovation is so critical to driving incremental growth for any brand and it is often the make or break for business breakthrough, especially in highly competitive environments. It's all about spotting opportunities early and then going after them and this can range from small improvements in productivity to major priority projects. If delivered successfully an innovation can improve sales and customer relationships, reduce costs and improve margins, while boosting our market position as a brand and our overall reputation as a company. Who doesn't want to be seen as a disrupter with fresh ideas!

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